


The Journey Continues

by GoggleLad



Category: Magia Record: Puella Magi Madoka Magica Side Story
Genre: Domestic Fluff, F/F, I have emotions about the shutdown and I'm dealing with them by writing, lots of hugging, love and despair and mobile games, server shutdown
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-03
Updated: 2020-09-03
Packaged: 2021-03-06 19:21:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,000
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26264119
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GoggleLad/pseuds/GoggleLad
Summary: Kokoro takes an interest in a new mobile game and invite Masara to play with her.  Masara decides to give it a shot, thinking that maybe, just maybe, she might enjoy it.  What's the worst that could happen?
Relationships: Awane Kokoro/Kagami Masara
Comments: 13
Kudos: 20





	The Journey Continues

**Author's Note:**

> The NA server shutdown announcement hit me like a ton of bricks and completely hijacked my writing plans, and now this exists.

“What is that?” Masara asked, pointing at Kokoro’s phone.

Kokoro looked up, seeming surprised. “Oh, this?” She turned her phone around, showing Masara the screen. “It’s this new game that just came out. I heard that it’s been doing really successful overseas and I’ve sort of been following the franchise, so I thought I’d give it a shot!”

“Hm.” Masara thoughtfuly considered the matter. “Is it interesting?”

“Well, I haven’t gotten very far yet and I don’t play that many games, but I think so. Look at all these cute characters!”

Masara nodded. “Maybe I’ll try playing it as well, then.”

“Really?” Kokoro seemed even more surprised now. “I didn’t know you were into this sort of thing.”

“You think it’s interesting, so I thought I should try it out,” Masara said. She was always hoping to find something interesting or exciting, that would make her feel something. Besides, if Kokoro was going to be spending time on this game, it would give Masara something that she could talk about with Kokoro. That was just logical.

“Okay. That’s great, actually!” Kokoro smiled, and somehow that made Masara certain that she’d made the right choice. “I don’t actually know anyone else that’s going to play this. We can share friend codes with each other, so that we can use each others’ characters! This should be fun.”

Kokoro helped walk Masara through downloading the game and setting up her account. She couldn’t say that she felt any particular sense of attachment as she looked at the game’s cute art, but it was too early to judge yet. Maybe this game would be enjoyable?

  
  


* * *

  
  


“What’s that?” Kokoro asked, pointing over Masara’s shoulder at the spreadsheet document displayed on her laptop screen.

“I’m charting what materials I need in order to max out all of my girls, sorted by priority level for the girls I want to focus on first,” Masara explained. “And then I’m cross-referencing it with the drop-rate tables to see where I need to farm, and approximately how much AP it will take.”

“Huh. You’ve gotten really into this game, haven’t you?” Kokoro had been enjoying it herself, but she wasn’t really much of a gamer, and she didn’t have much of a grasp on the finer points of the mechanics. But Masara had become quite taken with it, much to Kokoro’s surprise, and would sometimes explain to Kokoro why _this_ team formation was better than _that_ one or why she was having such a hard time against a boss.

Masara paused, tilting her head in consideration. “…Hm. I just thought… If I’m going to do this, I should do it efficiently.”

Kokoro laughed softly. “Yeah, that’s a Masara answer.” She tapped her finger to her chin. “But in that case, isn’t it better to just get materials from the next event? You were telling me before that the drop rates for regular missions is pretty bad, right?”

“Yes, but right now all story missions are at half-cost,” Masara explained patiently. “And judging by the data from the overseas version, the next event probably won’t have all the materials that I need anyway.”

“And you don’t want to wait for the event after that, huh?” Kokoro had been decidedly more relaxed about her progress in this game, but she had to admit that it was cute to see Masara get worked up about it. She scanned over Masara’s document, then, with a curious expression on her face, pointed at a line that listed the material requirements for one of Masara’s high-priority characters. “Is she a good character? I haven’t really heard you talking about her before.”

Masara… hesitated. That was something that got Kokoro’s attention right away. Masara had no qualms about explaining all of the strengths and weaknesses of a given character in the high-tier meta, even if it mostly went over Kokoro’s head. Now, though, Masara wouldn’t meet Kokoro’s eyes, and looked almost… embarrassed? “I… liked her story,” Masara finally admitted in a quiet voice.

Kokoro’s body moved without consulting her brain, wrapping the other girl in a firm hug. _This girl._ Ice cold Masara was getting emotionally attached to a game character, and it was so precious. Masara stiffened up in surprise at first, but relaxed into the embrace after a moment.

“Kokoro?”

Even with her face tucked into Masara’s shoulder, Kokoro knew exactly what expression Masara had on right now. It was that slightly confused look that said that Masara didn’t understand what was going on, but with a light in her eyes that said that she didn’t dislike it. “So cute,” Kokoro mumbled into Masara’s shoulder.

  
  


* * *

  
  


“…Masara, did you get any sleep?”

Masara looked at the sleepy, bleary-eyed Kokoro and her disheveled morning hair, then glanced at the clock that told her it was half-past seven in the morning. She mentally retraced her past activities, looking down at the phone in her hands. “…No,” she concluded.

Kokoro made one of those noises that indicated that it was too early in the morning for her to be dealing with this but she had to anyway. “Masara, I know that you’re excited, but sleep is important too.”

“You don’t understand, Kokoro,” Masara said, shaking her head. It was true that her eyelids felt heavy and her thoughts might be a bit sluggish, but that hardly seemed consequentual. “It’s the final battle of the first arc. The _final battle_.”

“The event is going to be there for at least a few days,” Kokoro pointed out.

“It’s one of the most farmable events in the whole game,” Masara said. “It’s the best possible use for AP-potions.”

“Masara.”

“And,” Masara went on, “ _every single character_ has _multiple lines_ of unique dialogue for this fight, Kokoro. This is the only time it’ll be available, you won’t be able to see it after this.”

“ _Masara.”_

“Those girls are counting on me, Kokoro! The raid progress has been slowing down, what if we don’t make it by the end of the event? What if they lose?! Those girls have worked so hard, I have to save them!”

Kokoro sighed and pulled Masara close, comfortably resting Masara’s head against her shoulder. “I’m glad that you’ve found a game that you can get really attached to, really,” Kokoro said in gentle, soothing tones. “But you have to take care of yourself too.”

“But…”

“Look at it this way. You’ve fought alongside those girls for a whole year. Do you really think they’ll lose here?”

“…But…”

“If I promise to take over the fight for you, will you get some sleep?” Kokoro asked with exasperation.

“…Okay.” Masara yawned loudly. “I suppose I am a bit tired…”

Kokoro lead her back to the bedroom, and she was unconscious almost before her head hit the pillow.

  
  


* * *

  
  


Kokoro woke up to see Masara already awake, sitting up in bed looking at her phone. Kokoro smiled at the sight of her lover beside her, but her smile quickly faded when she saw the look on Masara’s face. It was rigidly stiff, wiped clean of emotion, an expression that Kokoro very rarely saw and usually only as a reaction to Kokoro herself being injured. “ What’s wrong?”

Masara’s eyes met hers, flat and lifeless. After a few moments Masara took a deep breath and answered. “They’re… shutting down the server,” she said, turning her phone toward Kokoro.

It took a few moments for Kokoro’s mind to process that Masara was talking about the game. Her eyes quickly scanned the in-game news page.  Then she took the phone from Masara and read it again, more carefully. She briefly considered if this was a dream of some kind. “Why … ”

Masara shrugged her shoulders stiffly. “It was probably decided some time ago,” she said, and her words were heavy with suppressed emotion. “It explains a few things about how the game has been handled recently. I suppose it just wasn’t making enough money for them.”

That was odd. Kokoro didn’t know much about this sort of thing, but she thought it had been doing well. It had had an animated adaptation a while ago too. Then again, these were pretty difficult times, what with the pandemic and all, so maybe there were some complicated circumstances?

The news was disappointing. Kokoro had had a lot of fun with the game, it had been part of her daily schedule, and she’d be sad to see it close. But for Masara… Kokoro’s heart clenched to see the look on Masara’s face. For Masara, who had been so invested, the news was crushing.

Kokoro pulled Masara in close and embraced her comfortingly. “I’m sorry,” she murmured gently. “I know how hard this must be for you.”

Masara took a deep breath. “ … There was so much that I was still looking forward to,” she said, and the words that might have seemed emotionless to someone else were thick with grief to Kokoro’s knowing ears. “We were just about to start the second story arc… My favorite character never even got her uncap … ”

Kokoro ran her fingers tenderly through Masara’s hair, hoping to soothe her. “Yeah,” she agreed softly. She didn’t know what else, to say, something like  _it’ll all be okay_ felt like an empty platitude. “Yeah. This sucks.”

  
  


* * *

  
  


“Maybe we should look for a new game to play,” Kokoro said over dinner. “I’m going to be really sad to see this one close down, but there isn’t really anything we can do about it. Maybe we can find another one that’s similar.”

Masara could feel the kindness behind Kokoro’s words, the unspoken concern. Masara had to admit that she had sort of been moping all day, ever since the news had come out this morning. She appreciated Kokoro’s thought, to try to move on. But… “I’ve been… thinking about something.”

Kokoro looked at her curiously. “Oh? What’s that?”

“I… don’t want to quit,” Masara admitted. “So… I’m thinking I’ll join the overseas server.”

Kokoro blinked. “Is that something that you can do?”

Masara nodded firmly. It had come up when Masara had been scanning the internet for a possible workaround earlier, and she’d spent a good chunk of the day considering the option and investigating logistics. “The original server is still running, it’s only ours that’s shutting down.  It takes some extra work to get around the region lock, but it’s possible to play it.”

Kokoro locked eyes with her, peering into her soul. “You won’t understand the language,” she pointed out.

“Translation software exists,” Masara pointed out. “It’s inconvenient, but not impossible.”

“And… you’d have to start all over again, I suppose? And you’d be behind, right? Because they’re further ahead than we are.”

Masara nodded. She knew that it would be difficult. And yet… even so.

“I… don’t think I can do that,” Kokoro admitted. “I already wasn’t very competitive. I don’t think I can bring myself to overcome all those difficulties. Is that okay with you?”

Masara paused, giving it serious thought… and then nodded. “It’s okay. This is… it’s something that I want to do for myself.” It was a strange thing for her to say. There were very few things that she took interest in that were unrelated to Kokoro, and she’d started this game in the first place mostly just because Kokoro was interested in it. But over time it really had become something that she enjoyed for herself.

Kokoro smiled and reached out to squeeze Masara’s hand. “ Then you should do it,” she said. “I don’t think I can do much to help you, but I’ll support you, at least emotionally. This situation really sucks, but… I’m really glad that you found something that you care so much about.”

“…Me too.”

She wasn’t going to let it end here. Now that she’d committed to that decision and had Kokoro’s backing, she felt a bit better. It would be hard, no question, but… she wouldn’t be saying goodbye just yet to all of the characters that she’d grown attached to.

The journey would continue.

**Author's Note:**

> I'm just dealing with grief in my own way by writing. Making Masara sad made me sad too, and the rest of the story just happened without my conscious input. Masara and Kokoro are apparently living together by the end of the fic, not sure how or when that happened, and somehow most of the scenes ended with hugs. For the record, I'm also refusing to quit just yet, and I plan to keep writing for this fandom.


End file.
